


Full of Surprises

by moodymarshmallow



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, prompted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-07-01
Packaged: 2017-12-16 19:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/865683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodymarshmallow/pseuds/moodymarshmallow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anders falls for Bethany Hawke, and has to admit a big secret in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Full of Surprises

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by MrWiggums on Tumblr.

With an admirably steady hand, Bethany Hawke sliced the elfroot into thin, uniform strips. It could have been torn, shredded into bits without any tools, but Bethany made potions the way her father taught her, patience radiating from her like the soft glow of the lantern outside. Anders could see why Varric called her Sunshine; her warmth alone was staggering.

She began working at the clinic soon after they met, expressing admiration for Anders' devotion to his patients. Though he had run the clinic alone since arriving in Kirkwall, spending the last few months mired in sorrow over the loss of Karl, he couldn't turn down her offer of help. In the months she worked by his side, mixing poultices, washing bandages, and taking care of the patients with minor injuries, Anders felt as though a great weight had been lifted from him. Though Justice never silenced, he felt a certain sense of peace in no longer being stretched so thin. He was sleeping again, though still fitfully as the nightmares never stopped, but it was better. When he caught a glimpse of himself in the looking glass, the dark circles under his eyes had improved; he looked more like himself. Occasionally he even felt like himself again.

What happened next was inevitable. Though Anders immediately fell for Bethany's sister with her pretty, sarcastic face and ability to make heavy armor more appealing than it had ever been in Kinloch Hold, Hawke's rejection had been swift and complete. At first it was a simple transfer of attention; Bethany actually spoke to him with sympathy, with pity and kindness in her warm eyes. With time the pity melted away, and her gaze was less kind and more fond, with the smallest flash of real, unmistakable affection.

He fell hard, spending sleepless nights wanting to brush his fingers through her beautiful hair, cup her cheek and whisper sweetness in her ear. He imagined untying that red bandana and pressing warm kisses to her neck; it would be pale and unblemished, he just knew it, and when she slipped off her robes she would be more perfect than all the statues of Andraste.

But he said nothing, heeding the warnings of both Justice and his low self-esteem, believing that she was a distraction, a sweet fantasy and nothing more. But every day his heart fluttered to see her passing through the doors of his clinic, and every day it sunk when she left.

On her name day, which he found out about from Varric, he scraped together enough money to buy her a gift--just a trinket, a piece of costume jewelry with an amber stone, wrapped in brown paper and twine. He gave it to her when she arrived, while the clinic was still empty, watching with nervous energy as she unknotted the twine with graceful fingers. The smile on her face was worth every copper, and the kiss on his cheek was worth so much more.

He dreamed of her that night, and in the morning her name was intoxicating on his lips. He kept it close when, for the first time in a long time, he slid his hand down the front of his trousers to give himself desperate relief.

Anders shook himself from his daydream when Bethany finished with the batch of elfroot, her fingers stained and smelling unbearably medicinal. It was getting dark, and she lit a few extra candles with a wave of her hand as she made her way to the basin to wash her hands with rough lanolin soap.

"I can't believe you're finished already," Anders said, looking up from the desk in the center of the clinic. "I would have been at that for another hour at least."

"It's not that bad," she said as she scrubbed. "I'll stink of elfroot for a few days, but your stock will be full for at least two weeks." After drying her hands on the stained but clean towel, she joined Anders at the desk, leaning carefully on the side so as not to disrupt his work.

"I can't thank you enough," he said, marking his place with the ribbon sewn into the spine before closing the book. He leaned his elbow on the desk and rested his chin in his hand, smiling up at her. "I have no idea what I ever did without you."

"You got on just fine, I'm sure." She smiled, then looked at her hands folded in her lap. "Anders, I--" Her voice hitched, and his blood went cold. Before then, he'd been sure that was just a cliche, something people said to be dramatic. But the shiver that ran through him and the numbness in his hands was definitely a chill. "The way you look at me," she began again, and Anders quickly looked at the cover of his book, as if it were unbearably interesting. "You can't think I don't notice."

"I don't know what you mean," Anders said, though his resolve faltered immediately, and he stared down at his hands, miserable. It was too soon for another rejection, and he wasn't sure he could look her in the eye again when she did. He didn't see her extend her arm, but he felt her cup his chin with the most gentle touch.

"How come you haven't said anything?" she asked softly, tilting his head to look at her, though he could not meet her eyes.

"I didn't want to presume," he said softly, a bitter smile creeping up his lips. "I'm not--it's not--I just want you to stay; you've helped more than I could ever have hoped." He closed his eyes, realizing that Bethany was stroking his jawline gently with her thumb.

"You're more dense than I thought you were," Bethany said kindly, though her smile was cheeky. "You can't think that...what...you'd scare me off? I've always heard that women are supposed to be reserved and patient, and wait for a man to make the first move." Her voice was nearer, and Anders opened his eyes, unable to stop himself from a small gasp to see her leaning over him, hovering so near that he could smell the scent she used--soft and feminine, floral, but not overwhelming. The desire to bury his face in her neck to inhale that smell was so strong that he ached with it.

"Bethany," he said, his voice no louder than a whisper. He forgot the rest of his sentence when her lips met his, warm and pliant and perfectly soft. He lifted his hand to her cheek, feeling as though he had become an empty vessel of want and need, waiting to be full of her. She tilted her head, moved her lips, parting them, her breath warm on his cheek, and he slipped his hand back into her sleek hair, holding the back of her head tenderly. When she pulled back, he pressed his lips to her cheek, leaving a red smudge from the transfer of her lipstick. "Oh, Sunshine," he whispered. "You have no idea how much I wanted that."

"Fool," she said tenderly, brushing his wild hair off his brow, leaning in to meet his kiss again. He stood, cupping her cheeks. The light, testing flick of her tongue against his lips drew a groan from him, and he dropped his arms to her waist to pull her near, desperate to finally hold her.

"Only a fool for you," he said sheepishly when they parted, stroking her back lightly with his fingertips, his cheeks and ears red when she slipped her hands over his shoulders.

"My sister would kill me, you know," she said, though the tone of her voice suggested that was exactly what she wanted.

"Not me?"

"Perhaps. She might try and argue that you took advantage of me, but we know better, don't we?" As she spoke she lifted herself on her toes, pressing her lips to Anders' ear. "But I'm not the innocent little baby sister she thinks I am." He shuddered, exhaling quickly at the warm wetness of her tongue on his ear, then the light, testing pinch of her teeth. He gripped the back of her robes tight, then let her go.

"You're full of surprises," he said with a gentle, fond laugh. He brushed back a strand of her shiny hair, a motion he had imagined himself doing a thousand times. "I can't really take you on a proper date here, but--"

"Who said anything about dating?" she asked, interrupting him. "We've wasted too much time faffing about as it is. You want me; I want you. Why should we wait?"

Anders eyes went comically wide, his mouth opening, jaw working as if he couldn't find the words he meant to say. She put her hand on his chest, slipping it under his jacket, and he grabbed her wrist gently.

"You're moving very fast," he said, swallowing hard. "I thought you said your sister would kill you."

"Oh, that's half the fun. Can you imagine if she came to visit you and found us like this? She won't--but she'd be furious. And I think she'd be sorry she gave up her chance with such a handsome man." Bethany leaned against him, smiling, kissing his jawline lightly. "You do want me, don't you?"

"More than you know," Anders said thickly.

"Then why wait? You said that it was common for apprentices to have trysts when you were in the tower; is this that different?"

Anders laughed, lifting a hand to his face to hide the fiery blush. "I...may have been exaggerating a little."

"Oh," she said, blinking slowly. "Well that's all right, I don't mind if you're not experienced as I am."

"Maker's blood," he murmured. "I didn't really imagine needing to have this conversation..." he glanced to the door, then gently wrested himself from her grip. He crossed the room and pulled the key from his hip pouch, pulling closed the doors and locking them. "You're a beautiful woman," he said when he returned to her, touching her cheek lightly with the back of his hand. She put her hand over his, tilted her head to kiss his knuckles. "But we really ought to slow down."

"Is it Justice?"

"No, no. He's...remarkably quiet on the subject," he said, the realization of that a little confusing. Normally Justice was entirely opposed to his fantasies. He knew Fade spirits didn't sleep, and if he didn't know better he'd have thought that Justice had stepped out for a moment. But he still felt him there, just silently. "Oh, Maker this is embarrassing," he murmured. "The stories I told at the Hanged Man, about my...exploits at the Fereldan circle." He closed his eyes to her curious gaze. "They were lies. All of them."

"Oh," she said gently. "I see. Well that's fine, I can understand wanting to make it sound like you were a bit of a lothario. You do have the looks for it."

"You're the first one to think so," he said with an awkward laugh. She cocked her head, blinking.

"But Karl..."

"We were never...it was...I loved him, but we were never intimate."

"Are you saying that you're a virgin?" she asked quietly, her voice edging on incredulous. He nodded, covering his face again. "At your age? You're at least twenty-six, aren't you?"

"Thirty," he said with an absurd laugh, hardly believing he had just admitted that.

"How--"

"It just never happened--there were no opportunities in the Circle, nobody in the wardens had any interest, and when I was on the run I couldn't exactly stop and..."

"But Isabela said--"

"Oh I might have tickled her a little with electricity, but we didn't sleep together."

"Huh."

"Yes. Well. If that doesn't ruin it, I'm still very much interested," he said with a sheepish smile.

"Oh it takes a _lot_ more to scare me off," Bethany said, smirking. She leaned against him again, her arms over his shoulders. "It's actually kind of exciting. You're a blank slate; I can teach you everything I like, exactly how I like it," she whispered, pushing her breasts against his chest. "I want you," she purred, "and I have a dozen things I want you to do to me...but I can wait. I can be very patient if I need to."

"No," Anders said thickly, immediate and clear. "If that's what you want, I can't possibly say no." He kissed the side of her head, pushed her hair back to stroke her cheek. "Anything you want," he whispered. "Anything."


End file.
